How Do I Start Trading Full Time?

The Plunge

To me, going full time was the best move I ever made. After a while, I was looking back wishing I'd taken the plunge sooner. But at the time it wasn't an easy decision. Granted, I did not have a full-time job: I was doing independent consulting and dabbling in stocks at the same time. But still, when you work for a living, you put in a bid, get the job, deliver, get paid, and move on. In stock trading, you can put in your best effort and still lose money, which is a double whammy: not only did you not get paid, you've lost money.

Fear and Greed

As they say, fear and greed are the strongest motivators in the market. For me it was the greed that did the trick. As a consultant, you can always take on one more assignment, expand your business. You market yourself during downtime. But in the end, your upside is limited: you can only do so much and charge so much before you hit the ceiling. Stock returns, on the other hand, are unlimited. The only limitation is your skill level, which you can always improve. The longer I looked at past stock returns, the more my attitude changed. Instead of thinking of how much I could get paid for a job when stocks were moving against me, I began to think about how much I could be making in stocks instead of dealing with what I was dealing with at work.

Changing Priorities

When you think of yourself as a consultant first and a stock trader second, you arrange your priorities accordingly: do what you have to do for a living first, deal with stocks when you have the time, not when the opportunities are there. Needless to say, my list of missed opportunities was growing while I kept finding myself thinking about stocks (or reading Investor's Business Daily) while on an assignment. I finally realized that I could never do both well, and that I had to choose.

What do You Want to Be?

At some point you have to decide what you want to be. In my case, it was either consulting or stock trading. I have always been interested in stocks so in my mind there was no doubt where I wanted to be. Once I realized that, I was mentally ready to take the plunge. And I did.

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